Realtors: Home sales on steady up trend

Thursday

Jan 24, 2013 at 3:15 AM

CONCORD -- The New Hampshire residential real estate market ended 2012 with the most unit sales since 2006, the highest sales volume since 2007 and, over the last five months, a trend toward improving median price as well, according to data released this week by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors (NHAR).

The 12,961 sales of single family residential properties was a 21 percent increase over the 10,714 sold in 2011, and the $3.2 billion in total sales volume was also 21 percent higher than that of a year ago.

Median price in 2012, which had been lagging behind that of last year by 6.5 percent after the first four months, ended the year at $202,000, a hair ahead of the $201,700 in 2011.

“Certainly there are a variety of economic factors that will be critical in terms of a sustained housing recovery, but we have reasons to be encouraged,” said 2013 NHAR President Bill Weidacher, a 30-year veteran of the real estate industry and a managing broker at Keller Williams Metropolitan Realty in Bedford.

“Rather than the occasional statistical anomaly which we had seen over the past six years, this seems to be a genuine trend based on simple supply and demand principles.”

To that end, each month in 2012 saw a substantial increase in unit sales compared to the same month one year prior, including a 38 percent increase in November. Of the last 18 months, 17 have seen an uptick in unit sales.

“When you begin to see that sort of a consistent upward movement in sales, in a healthy market you would expect that to lead to a decrease in inventory and ultimately an increase in price, and that’s just what we’ve seen,” Weidacher said. “Even so, we don’t want to give the impression that we are expecting dramatic price gains any time soon. “Slow and steady are the watchwords here.”

Prices remained below 2011 levels for each of the first seven months in 2012, but that began to turn in August, when the $210,000 median price was equal to that of August a year earlier. September witnessed a 2.3 percent increase, followed by 11.6 percent in October, 9.1 percent in November and 0.3 percent in December, leading to the year-end median price of $202,000.

Locally, each of the 10 New Hampshire counties saw significant unit sales increases in 2012 compared to 2011, ranging from a 17 percent boost in Belknap County to 24 percent in Coos County. The state’s largest, Hillsborough County, witnessed a 23 percent gain in unit sales.

Four counties saw increased median sale prices in 2012, four counties saw decreases, and both Carroll and Hillsborough counties remained unchanged from 2011 prices.

In Rockingham County, year to date sales were up 20.7 percent, and the median sale price was $260,000, up 4 percent.

In Strafford County, sales also were up 20.7 percent, but the median price was $180,500, down 2.4 percent.